§ Sir John Biggs-Davisonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement about the latest discussions with European and other Ministers concerning international measures against terrorism.
§ Mr. BrittanI attended a meeting of Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe in Edinburgh on 14 June. At that meeting, the Committee of Ministers was requested to set up a body to be
open to all Ministers who, in their respective Council of Europe Governments, are responsible for combating terrorismin order to carry out "concrete and relentless action" against terrorism. It is intended that this body will meet later in the year. I have had a number of bilateral meetings with individual European Ministers, most recently with the French and Italian Ministers of the Interior, and have established a joint Italian-United Kingdom working party to improve co-operation between our two countries. I attended the Trevi meeting in Rome on 21 June where I and other Ministers re-affirmed our determination to combat terrorism and resolved to hold Ministerial meetings more frequently in the future.